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International Human Rights Day
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EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
 OPENING ADDRESS BY REV M.A. STOFILE, PREMIER OF THE EASTERN CAPE,
 AT THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY CELEBRATIONS, PORT ELIZABETH
13 DECEMBER 1998



This year we commemorated in style the 50th anniversary of the Universal declaration of Human Rights. Today we are joining the rest of 
South Africa and the world to continue to pledge our commitment to the preservation and protection of the gains made in the field of Human 
Rights. Indeed we commit ourselves to the ongoing improvement of implementing the many agreements on the topic as well as an ongoing 
improvement on the definition of Human Rights. This is so because no part of humanity can live in peace and freedom if another part is in 
bondage and tyranny.

Until very recently, international human rights organisations have neglected the problem of violence against women. One cause of this 
neglect was their narrow reading of the broad language of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which is the 
most influential treaty within the traditional human rights movement and receives more resources than other human rights instruments and 
has more effective implementation mechanisms. The narrow interpretation of this covenant facilitated the protection of male-defined 
culture, family or religious rights often at the expense of women. As a result of global mobilisation of women, and international attention 
to certain ongoing atrocities, both official and private violence against women have begun to be recognised as a human rights concern. By 
insisting that "women's rights are human rights" women are asserting that widespread gender based discrimination and abuse of women are 
devastating realities as urgently in need of redress as other human rights violations. The challenge to human rights thinking and practice 
posed by women for three decades crystallised around the second world conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), and later at the 
International Conference on women (Beijing, 1995) (Kenneth Roth, Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Issue & Rhonda Copelon, Understanding 
Domestic Violence As torture).

The concepts of violence against women is now exposed internationally in its various forms and dimensions and defined as "violence 
perpetrated in the domestic sphere which targets women because of their role within that sphere or as violence which is intended to impact, 
directly and negatively, on women within the domestic sphere and may be carried out by both private and public actors or agents". The 
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against women defines violence against women as "any gender-based violence that results in, or 
is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats or such acts of coercion or 
arbitrary deprivation or liberty.

Violence against women is an ever-increasing problem. It extends to violence at home, into society and has become a method of systematic 
assault on femininity. The human rights tradition privileges a certain type of personality - an individual endowed with rights, guided by 
reason and empowered with dignity. Since the universal Declaration of Human Rights, this has been the vision which has sustained many of 
the political, economic and social experiments of the modern world.

Violence against human beings has been one of the major factors which has prevented the realisation of human rights goals in the Twentieth 
century. War, repression, and the brutalisation of private life have destroyed the possibility of human rights being enjoyed as a universal 
phenomenon. Violence against women, in particular, has inhibited women as a group from enjoying the full benefits of human rights. Women 
have been vulnerable to acts of violence in the family, in the community and by States. The recorded incidents of such violence have 
reached such unprecedented proportions that they have shocked the conscience of the world. As a result, the international community has 
decided to take concerted action against incidents of violence against women as part of the general campaign for human rights.

Women are vulnerable to violence because of their female sexuality (resulting in, inter alia, rape and female genital mutilation), because 
they are subjected to a man (domestic violence, dowry deaths, sati, intimate femicide) or because they belong to a social group where 
violence against women becomes a means of humiliation directed at the group (rape in items of armed conflict or ethnic strife). Women are 
subject to violence in the family (battering, sexual abuse of female children, dowry related violence, incest, deprivation of food, marital 
rape, female genital mutilation), to violence in the community (rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment trafficking in women, forced 
prostitution) and violence by the State (women in detention and rape during times of armed conflict).

As is stated in the Preamble to the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, violence against women is a 
manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women. Violence is part of a historical process and is not natural or 
born of biological determinism. The system of male dominance has historical roots and its functions and manifestation change over time. The 
oppression of women is therefore a question of politics, requiring an analysis of the institution of the State and society, the 
conditioning and socialisation of individuals, and the nature of economic and social exploitation. The use of force against women is only 
one aspect of this phenomenon, which relies on intimidation and fear to subordinate women.

If the roots of female subordination lie in historical power relations within society, then the institutions of State and civil society 
must accept responsibility for female subordination, including violence against women. The State bears a primary responsibility not only to 
refrain from encouraging acts of violence against women but actively to intervene in preventing such acts from taking place (The Hindu 
Online: Violence Against Women).

THE SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION

South African women remain second class citizens despite the changes since the first democratic elections on April 27 1994. Economic, 
social and legal inequalities persist. Women are subject to widespread violence that prevents them from enjoying the other rights and 
privileges that they are ensured of by the constitution. Both domestic violence and sexual assault are pervasive in South Africa and are 
directed almost exclusively against women, often in places in which they should be safe and by people that they know and should be able to 
rely on. Women's organisations estimate that one in three women will be raped, on in six women is in an abusive relationship and that one 
women is killed every six days by her intimate male partner. These are issues of immediate concern to women across the political and racial 
spectrum.

South African women victims of violence continue to face a judicial and police system that routinely denies them redress. Women, regardless 
of race, complain of indifferent or hostile treatment from the criminal justice system, and black women in particular face lingering racial 
prejudice in their interactions with the State. Police are frequently ignorant of the laws protecting women from violence and, within the 
courts, judges often discount rape survivor's testimony and give lenient sentences to rapists. Sentencing patterns and condemnations meted 
out to men who kill their partners is left to the discretion of the presiding judge resulting in extremes in sentencing patterns. Often the 
cultural, traditional or religious justifications advanced are upheld thus condoning these violations and undermining the spirit of the 
Declaration on Violence against women article 4 That "States should condemn violence against women and should not invoke any customs, 
tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination".

The South African government, at the highest policy-making levels, has expressed a commitment to addressing these forms of violence against 
women.It is fairly correct to say that ordinary South Africans are not highly sensitive to violence against women. But it is also fair to 
say that since 1994 the topic has reached far more people than before. The largest number who must still be reached are Black women and men 
in rural areas. This is the challenge facing both the Government and NGOs.

VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN

The spectre of child-bashing, ill-treatment and rape is as serious as the above. Many of the cases of social problems like street children, 
young delinquents etc. also find their roots in child-abuse. Whether at school, at home or in prison, children deserve protection form 
abuse. They must be protected against child-labour and even child-trading.

All these challenges are not going to vanish overnight and without effort. As we deal with the legacy of illiteracy, joblessness, poverty 
and the rejuvenation of a better moral fabric in society, our attitude to human rights issues must also improve. Our Constitution and the 
Institutions established to protect it make sure of that. But the best custodians of a better Human Rights situation is the people of South 
Africa, us. So events like this one are important building blocks towards our final objective: A better South Africa for all.

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